"How the other half lives"

Is a stupid and ridiculous phrase used by people who have lived most of their life with the ability to attain what it is they have wanted. (I was one of them) Most notably because it’s not half the people in the world who live without the privilege, it’s the majority. 

The group of volunteers will arrive in country in less than a month (Which also means that the second-years with whom I’m already serving will start leaving in two months. Luckily, in a weird twist of fate/cash in of all the karma I have ever accumulated, two of my best friends both won at the third-year lottery and I get them 7k and 50k away from for another year. So it’s a lot less bittersweet than it could be.) and like we were doing a year ago, are sending frantic questions at us daily: what to pack, what they’ll be eating, what to expect.

It’s that last one that is the most difficult to answer. There is nothing that I could have done in the month before I left to better prepare myself for this experience. Strip down every luxury that you have in your life (grocery stores, reliable transport, running water, reliable and regulated electricity, road that get you directly where you want to go, the ability to purchase exactly what you want at that moment if you have access to a means of transportation) and maybe you could start there.

This is not a post to complain about what I don’t have. It’s a post to reflect on how much I didn’t understand how much life is different outside the United States.

In high school, I participated in this leadership/diversity program where my mind was first rocked by the idea that I had peers who had not grown up with 50 books in their house.

This is so much farther beyond that.